Ars Poetica is a meditation on poetry. Examining the role of poets as subjects, their relationship to the poem and the act of writing.

In this workshop, Sihle will address how humility in writing can have a positive impact on artistry and the way Ars Poetica can be used as an instrument to remind us of the importance of mindfulness and a reverence for the craft.

The second component of the workshop will be about putting this into practice through the writing of the Ars Poetica or a poem about poetry. Sihle will demonstrate how this poetic form can be used to unblock the writer from the inability to move forward through diagnosing the issue creatively and possible methods to break free.

Sihle Ntuli is a poet, classicist and editor from Durban, South Africa and a recipient of the 2024 Patricia Kailis International Writing Fellowship. He received his MA in Classical Civilisations from Rhodes University, where he briefly lectured Classics at the University of the Free State and the University of Johannesburg. His writing has been supported by the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship in South Africa and the Centre for Stories in Australia through the Patricia Kailis Fellowship. He also served as the editor-in-chief of South Africa’s oldest literary magazine New Contrast in 2023. He is a 2024 Best of the Net poetry winner and a Pushcart prize nominee. His poems have appeared in ADDA stories, Poetry Wales, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, and elsewhere.

The Patricia Kailis International Writing Fellowship aims to ‘support the work of talented individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to ideas and practices that foster belonging and better cross-cultural understanding’, ‘deepen and broaden the literary culture in Western Australia’, and offer Western Australian emerging writers access to writers of international reputation.